


Breaking the Rules

by 1848pianist



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - 1950s, Alternate Universe - High School, Homophobia, Multi, Queer Culture, Teenage Rebellion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:09:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1848pianist/pseuds/1848pianist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cosette gets asked on an unusual date. Teenage rebellion ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

“Hello, Cosette,” a pleasant voice said from over Cosette’s shoulder. She looked up from her book to see a cheerful-looking boy, whose curly haired looked as if it had recently been carefully attended to.

“Hello,” she replied. “Do I know you?”

“Probably not. My friend wants to know if you’d like to join us for a soda. He’d ask you himself, but the shop would probably close in the time it would take him to stutter out the invitation. I’m Courfeyrac, by the way,” the boy said.

“Nice to meet you, Courfeyrac. I’d love to,” Cosette answered, seeing a red-faced boy standing a few feet away and watching them nervously.

Courfeyrac turned to him. “Hey, Marius! She said yes!” Cosette saw Marius go an even more violent shade of crimson.

“Poor thing,” Courfeyrac said. “Can’t even talk to a girl without raising the temperature of the room.”

“Maybe he just needs practice,” Cosette replied coyly. “Hi, Marius.”

“Hello,” he said, or rather mouthed, as hardly any sound came out. Cosette got the idea.

“Well, let’s go,” Courfeyrac said, wrapping an arm around their shoulders and rescuing Marius from having to think of anything else to say.

 

At the soda shop, Courfeyrac insisted on paying for their drinks, and Marius promptly offered to pay him back for Cosette’s order. Cosette watched in amusement as they argued until Marius realized she could hear them and once again went scarlet.

“If Marius weren’t chronically tongue-tied, I might have saved myself fifty cents,” Courfeyrac joked. Then, spotting a group of his friends from school, he left them alone together before Marius realized what was happening.

“So, Cosette,” he began, “you’re new here, right?”

“Sort of,” she answered. “I was at this school a long time ago, when I was little, but Papa moves around a lot – for his job, I suppose. Anyway, we just moved back.”

Marius nodded, apparently gathering his thoughts. “Cosette… would you like to go to a movie with me, maybe? There’s one showing tonight at the drive-in and—”

“Sure, Marius,” she replied, gently cutting off his nervous rambling. “I’d like that.”

“Oh… good,” Marius said, slightly out of breath. “D’you mind if Courfeyrac comes? We were going to go together, and I don’t want to tell him no…”

“I don’t mind, “ she said as Courfeyrac returned to their table.

“Did you invite her to the movie?” Courfeyrac asked. “Yes? Oh, excellent, I hoped you would.” Cosette giggled at Marius’s look of shock.

 

Courfeyrac’s idea of killing time seemed to be driving around in the car his parents had bought him a few weeks ago on his sixteenth birthday. He was quite proud of it.

“You two get to know each other,” he responded to Marius’s protests as he meandered through side streets that were in no way en route to the drive-in. “It’s not even dark yet, we’ll get there on time.”

In fact, they were early, and Courfeyrac offered to buy concessions for them in the meantime. It seemed to Cosette that he had an endless supply of money, which he was very generous in sharing. Marius, she observed, did not enjoy such wealth, but then, neither did she.

“Marius loves this movie,” Courfeyrac informed Cosette. “I swear we’ve seen it twenty times.”

“It must be good, then,” she replied.

Courfeyrac grinned. “Guess you’ll find out. Come on Marius, I think it’s starting.”

Cosette was offered the passenger seat, with Marius to her left. Courfeyrac was sprawled across the backseat, claiming that he could watch the movie from memory and didn’t need a particularly good view.

It was a good movie, Cosette agreed, and she could see why Marius liked it. She turned to tell him this, only to find the two boys more interested in each other than the film.

An involuntary ‘oh,’ escaped her lips, interrupting the kisses Courfeyrac was leaving on the back of Marius’s neck and the corner of his jaw.

Marius jumped, looking absolutely terrified. “You didn’t tell her?” he all but squeaked at Courfeyrac.

“I thought you had!” Courfeyrac hissed back. “I’m sorry, Cosette, really. I thought you knew.”

“It’s not _that_ ,” Cosette spat. “Why did you lead me on, then?”

Marius looked over hesitatingly at Courfeyrac, then turned back to her. “We… weren’t,” she said slowly.

“It was a lot to ask, Cosette,” Courfeyrac added, taking her silence for disapproval. “Sorry, we’ll take you home.”

“You mean… you were _both_ asking me out?” she finally asked. Marius and Courfeyrac nodded, looking considerably more hopeful.

“Oh,” she repeated. “In that case…”

Courfeyrac looked at her in disbelief before breaking into a huge grin. He laughed, poking Marius in the shoulder. “I told you!” he said gleefully. “Jesus, Marius, why couldn’t you just tell her?” And then they were all laughing, not a one of them paying the slightest attention to the movie.

 

It was late when Cosette finally returned home, but not so late as to worry Papa, she thought. After all, she hardly ever went out, so coming home late one time couldn’t possibly be a problem.

“Where have you been?” he asked as soon as she came through the door, sounding equal parts angry and worried.

“I was out with some friends,” she explained. “We went to a movie.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know you wanted to know where I was all hours of the day! I’m almost eighteen, Papa!”

“But you aren’t eighteen yet,” he said. “I don’t want you seeing these friends without my permission.”

“Papa!”

“I’m sorry, Cosette, but it has to be this way. It’s for your own sake.”

Cosette shook her head, running up to her room in a fury.

 

“Morning, Cosette,” Courfeyrac said to her the next day. “Marius and I are going out tonight. Want to come along?”

She hesitated a moment, thinking of her Papa’s worry. Then she thought of last night, of the happiness she had never experienced before that Marius and Courfeyrac had given her.

“I’d love to,” she replied.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courfeyrac, as usual, has a wild idea.

“So, what is this mystery place?” she asked Courfeyrac as she and Marius met up with him after school.

“You’ll find out,” he said, grinning, and tossed a newspaper article to Marius. “Here, you’ll enjoy this.” Marius glanced at the article, snorted in disgust, and threw it back.

“What is it?” Cosette asked.

“Just McCarthy rounding up the gays in high places again. No big deal. Everyone knows that the queers are all communist.” He grinned. “HEY! I’M ANTI-CAPITALIST!” he shouted across the parking lot. The English teacher gave him a dirty look on her way out of the school, climbing into her car rather more quickly than necessary.

“And I like men,” Marius added more quietly, rolling his eyes.

“Nothing like homophobia to get Pontmercy stirred up,” Courfeyrac noted. “Or communism to frighten middle-aged teachers. Which brings me to our destination.”

“Which is?” Cosette asked, still laughing at the look on their teacher’s face.

“Not telling,” Courfeyrac said, infuriating as ever. “Come on.”

“Do you know?” Cosette asked Marius in impatience. He shook his head, already back to what Cosette had deemed his default Shy & Quiet mode.

“I’m aging, here,” Courfeyrac said over his shoulder. “And it’s no use trying to get anything out of Pontmercy.”

In retaliation, Cosette sat in the backseat with Marius.

“So, what’s your story?” she asked, trying to get more than a sentence at a time out of him. He looked at her quizzically.

“I think I’ve figured out what Courf’s is,” she went on. “He’s so naturally rebellious that I doubt anyone would take him seriously if he said that _he_ was queer. They’d probably think he was joking. As for me, I have no idea what Papa would do. He’s not exactly pleased with my sudden social life, but I’m not sure that it would make a difference who I hung out with. So what about you?”

Marius looked uncomfortable. “My grandfather kicked me out. I’ve been living with Courfeyrac. He got me a job.”

“Wonderful and caring friend that I am,” Courfeyrac added.

“Oh,” Cosette said. “I’m so sorry, Marius.”

Marius shrugged. “It’s probably for the better. And Courfeyrac lives on his own, so there’s nobody to bother us about it.”

“Other than the rest of the world,” Cosette said.

“We’re here!” Courfeyrac cried. Cosette glanced up to see what looked – and smelled – like a bar. She didn’t have much experience in the matter, but she was fairly sure she knew it wasn’t only a regular bar.

“Uh, Courf… you know I’ve never been in one of these, right?”

“Also it’s illegal?” Marius added. She was relieved to see that he looked as uncomfortable as she did.

“It’s fine, guys, they don’t care. It’ll be good for you,” Courfeyrac said. “It’s not like you have to drink or anything. There’s, you know, music and stuff.”

“This is such a bad idea,” Marius said.

Courfeyrac looked disappointed. “Fine, we can leave.”

“No, actually I kind of want to go in,” Cosette said. “Just to see. I mean, we can always leave, right?”

“Right!” Courfeyrac agreed enthusiastically.  “What do you say, Marius?”

“Fine.”

 

“Well, this is quite a step up from the soda shop, don’t you think?” Courfeyrac said, surveying the dance floor.

“I thought people came to queer bars to meet people, not go on dates,” Marius replied.

“Oh, come on, Marius, there’s dancing!”

“Courfeyrac, I _so_ don’t dance—”

“I’ll dance with you,” Cosette said.

“Yeah, but then people will think we’re straight,” Courfeyrac answered.

“They already think we’re way too young to be here,” Marius chimed in.

“Maybe if I get you drunk, you won’t be such a party pooper.”

“Don’t even consider it. Do not. Cosette, make him leave.”

“Come on, Courf,” she said. “Let’s dance.”

 

They did draw a few odd looks, and a few questions which were resolved by pointing out Marius, but mostly no one cared that Cosette and Courfeyrac were dancing together, or that they were obviously underage. A few people hit on Courfeyrac, and he flirted back easily without leading them on. At one point, they saw someone ask Marius to dance, much to the mixed embarrassment and hilarity of all involved. Finally, Cosette convinced Courfeyrac to take a break and rehydrate – though not, as Courfeyrac suggested, with alcohol.

All was going well until they heard the first cry of, “Cops!”

“Shit,” Courfeyrac said.

 

Since Courfeyrac and Marius had no one to come get them, it was up to Cosette to call her Papa. She expected him to be furious, but surprisingly he agreed to pick them up without complaint. It wasn’t until Courfeyrac and Marius had gone that he said anything at all.

“You could have been hurt, Cosette. I don’t want you to see either one of them outside of school again,” he said, and that was the end of the matter. Cosette didn’t have it in her to argue with him.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should mention that this is less of a Fifties AU and more of a Fifties Aesthetic Fantasy with a few references to McCarthy, and I should admit that to myself. I'm in this for the sock hops and drive-in movies, and I hope you are too because I do not deserve to call myself a history major.

At first, not knowing what else to do with herself, Cosette sulked. The worst part was knowing that Papa was right. She shouldn’t have been anywhere near any sort of bar, and the very thought of going would never have occurred to her if not for Courfeyrac’s suggestion. What had she been thinking, playing at rebellion?

Unsurprisingly, knowing that she had been wrong did not make her feel better. She just felt even more rebellious, a feeling that worried her more than she cared to admit, unused to it as she was. Papa was only trying to protect her, in his way.

She was so determined to ignore it and prevent a repeat occurrence that she snapped at Marius at school when he asked how she was doing.

“I shouldn’t be talking to you!” she hissed, upsetting herself as much as Marius, who looked absolutely crestfallen. Horrified, Cosette turned away without apologizing.

 

By afternoon, her irrational anger had cooled, but her shame was stronger than ever. She ate her lunch alone, sitting against the wall of the courtyard, afraid of how she would react to Courfeyrac or Marius. She didn’t know who she was most upset at – them, her father, or herself.

As if he could hear her thoughts, Courfeyrac looked across the yard, spotting her before she could gather her things and escape.

“Cosette, what happened? Marius said you practically bit his head off.” He was grinning, but his expression read concern.

“I’m sorry, Courfeyrac, and I’m sorry for yelling at Marius, but I can’t talk to you anymore. I just can’t.” She could feel tears gathering in her eyes, a burn at the back of her throat.

“Hey,” Courfeyrac said, sitting down next to her. “No need to cry. I messed up. We’ll never do anything illegal, suspicious, or vaguely inappropriate again.”

“It’s not that,” she said, not looking at him. “And anyway, Papa’s forbidden me from so much as looking at either of you. I shouldn’t be talking to you right now…”

“I’ll leave you alone if you want,” Courfeyrac offered.

“No, don’t,” Cosette replied, dissolving suddenly into tears. Courfeyrac patted her shoulder awkwardly. Cosette sniffed, dabbing at her makeup, her face burning.

“Sorry, I’m being silly. This just isn’t like me at all. None of this is.”

“Do you regret it?” Courfeyrac asks, the usual teasing note absent from his voice.

“Yes,” Cosette replies, then shakes her head. “No.”

“Well, you take some to figure your head out, yeah?” Courfeyrac says, giving her a grin and a friendly nudge. “Come eat with Marius and me. If you’re going to be a real rebel you might as well go all the way.”

Cosette allowed him to pull her to her feet, smoothing out her skirt and trying to feel as sure of herself as Courfeyrac did.

“That’s better,” he said, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “Nobody could accuse you of being square now.”

She gave him a sly smile. “Could they ever?”

“Now you’re talking.”

He turned to lead her over to where Marius sitting, only to be knocked in the shoulder by a boy much bigger than he was. Cosette grabbed his arm, ready to pull him out of the way if necessary.

“Hey, Courfeyrac. Heard you and Pontmercy are living together. Sharing a bed, are you?”

Someone snickered behind Cosette’s back.

“If that’s true, then I’ve got _two_ more dates to the dance than you, Brujon,” Courfeyrac retorted, his characteristic mischievous expression still in place.

“Drop dead, Courfeyrac,” Brujon snarled, taking a threatening step closer.

Cosette snapped without thinking. “What, and look like you?”

Courfeyrac laughed even as the taller boy closed the gap between them, hand moving either to strike him or grab the collar of his shirt. Ducking under his arm, Courfeyrac dragged Cosette towards the center of the courtyard, where there were witnesses and tables to duck behind if the need arose.

“Nice one,” he whispered.

“I can’t believe I said that,” Cosette replied.

At his table, Marius was wide-eyed with disbelief. “What did you _do_?”

“It wasn’t me,” Courfeyrac said. “Cosette here is completely kookie, but she’s got guts.”

Despite herself, Cosette smiled, pleased by their approval too much to care about the consequences of her actions.

Feeling brave, she said, “We should go to that dance.”

“What, all three of us?” Courfeyrac didn’t even look up, intent on his lunch.

“Why not?”

Marius stared at her in a mixture of wonder and terror. “You _are_ nuts.”

“He means this in the best way possible,” Courfeyrac translated. “Not that he’s wrong.”

“No, I mean it. I’ve been, well, square my whole life. What’s wrong with a little dancing?”

Courfeyrac and Marius shared a brief look before turning back to her.

“Mostly the fact that you have two dates,” Marius pointed out.

“And that you’re under house arrest for the rest of your teenage years,” Courfeyrac added.

“That too.”

Cosette shook her head. “I want to show Papa that I’m not just being a rebellious teenager. I want to do this _properly_ ,” she said. “Besides, this isn’t nearly as dangerous as going to a _bar_ when we’re _underage_.” She gave Courfeyrac a pointed look.

“Fair enough,” he said, glancing over to the edge of the courtyard where Brujon and his gang stood glaring, knowing that they’d have to deal with them eventually. “However, I think you underestimate the brutality of teenagers.”


End file.
